Ever since Akira Toriyama returned to continue his best-known #animation series, Dragon Ball, the anime has burst back into popularity with Dragon Ball Super. Following Dragon Ball GT, the highly criticized attempt at continuing the Dragon Ball saga, DBS serves as the first official sequel to the much celebrated Dragon Ball Z. Intrigue in the series has, perhaps, never been higher than with their current storyline which follows Future Trunks as he seeks help from the past once again, this time, to stop the human eradicating Goku Black.

Unlike typical Dragon Ball storylines, the intrigue of this saga has not relied on the fighting and techniques for which the series is known. Rather, it has been the air of mystery surrounding the origin of Goku Black. Fan theories have been never-ending since we were first introduced to Black in episode 47 "SOS from the Future! A New Black Enemy Appears!". Now awaiting episode 56, many might say that not enough pieces have been revealed to determine who Black truly is. I think we know exactly who Black is and it's obvious, and not so obvious, at the same time. Let's first look at the evidence we do have about Black's identity.

Appearance

At first glance, there is not much to discern from Black's overall appearance, other than his earring and time ring. He dons a single gold Potara earring with a green gem; Potara earrings are known to belong to the Kais. He also wields a Time Ring, which allows a person to travel into the future and are only allowed to be worn by the Supreme Kai. We know in terms of his body, he is identical to Goku. His outfit is lifeless in color, with a black and grey color scheme, accented by white boots and a red sash. His top is a prototypical martial arts type apparel with no markings to help indicate anything about Black. His pants, however, point to a Kai-like origin. If you look at the shape of the pants, they are very loose at the thighs and bulge out before narrowing back down below the knees. This style of pant is reminiscent of the pants worn by the Kai's, as you can see on Supreme Kai below.

Ki

Note the pants!!!!

Goku & Co.'s recent journey to Universe 10 has offered some potential implications to Black's origin. It relates to the Universe 10 Supreme Kai's apprentice named Zamasu. During Goku's initial altercation with Black, Whis and Beerus noticed a similarity in Black's ki with that of Zamasu's. Upon traveling to Universe 10 and challenging Zamasu to a fight, Goku too notices that their ki are very similar, but continues the precedent that there is still something present that differentiates between the two ki. In terms of appearance, their ki are very similar in the form of a purple aura that surrounds their immediate body. Outside of the aura, Black also displays a black aura that takes the more typical form of energy that we see surrounding fighters bodies.

Zamasu's Tale

I think that the greatest piece of evidence offered about Black's identity has not come from Black's details, but from that of Zamasu's. Perhaps the most uncanny similarity between the two is an innate hatred towards humanity. In short, as he is being trained to become the next Supreme Kai, it becomes clear that Zamasu is very distrustful of mortals and feels as though the Kais should do more than just observe them. After meeting Goku, however, we see Zamasu's distrust become disdain. That disdain becomes most clear when Zamasu kills a being of a race which he felt offers no purpose and should be destroyed. The moment before finishing off the beast, Zamasu is shown in some trance, as though something dark took over and led to his rageful act. This serves as the primary catalyst for my theory:

Goku Black is the Physical Manifestation of Zamasu's Darkness

My theory has a number of possibilities in terms of how the story gets to that point. My guess is that Zamasu does eventually succeed his mentor and become the Universe 10 Supreme Kai. When he does, he would inherit the Potara earrings worn by his mentor, which appear similar to the one that Black wears. Zamasu would have already been repressing his darker feelings towards humanity or he would never be allowed to become Supreme Kai. Eventually, the darkness build up would be too much for Zamasu and either he would cast it out or this darker personality would split itself from the good. Since meeting Goku served as a catalyst for Zamasu's hate to continue growing, the darker personality would take that form, since the evil feelings and Goku have that connection.

The biggest deterrent to my theory is if Black is somehow related to Zamasu, then why does he not recognize Goku during their fight? Well, I may not have the best answer to that, but since Zamasu was who met Goku and his dark personality did not yet exist on its own, the memories of Goku specifically are only Zamasu's. The dark personality knows the image, which is how he copied it, but has no memories of Goku himself since he was not a fully developed psyche at the time.

Here's the craziest part - by my theory, Black helped create himself due to a weird time paradox. Zamasu would have never met Goku, which really jumpstarted his darkness, if Black didn't already exist. Crazy, right? Whis did warn about the dangers of messing with time...

What do you think of my theory? What is your theory of Goku Black's true origin?